Multicolor Anatolian Handwoven Wool Cicim Kilim

Cicim is a flatweave in which the pattern is not woven into the ground but wrapped around the warps as the ground goes up, so the figures stand a little above the surface and can be found with a hand in the dark.

01From ground to pile

This one is handwoven in wool and cotton in Türkiye, 186 × 277 cm (6'1" × 9'1"), in mixed color. One piece. The house files it as sandık eskisi — chest-old. The phrase covers a weaving that passed its life folded inside a dowry chest and never underfoot, which is why a piece like this arrives with its color more or less where the weaver left it and its wear concentrated along the folds rather than in the middle.

02Reading the motif

Anatolian cicim work is built from small repeated figures rather than one large drawing, and the vocabulary is a village one: hooks, stars, combs, the hands-on-hips figure Turkish calls elibelinde.

03From the hand of the weaver

What any single motif was understood to mean is not settled, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing. In a cicim the ground is a plain weave and the pattern is a second, supplementary weft added by hand as the work proceeds. That is slower than weaving an undecorated kilim, and it explains why cicim work was historically produced for a family to keep and not for sale.

04Color, by the light

Color will step from one band to the next where the dye lot changed; that is abrash, which records the hand rather than any failure of it. The raised motif work will not survive a domestic machine, so the wash goes to a professional. Handwoven in Türkiye in wool and cotton, in the cicim technique. Motifs are added as a supplementary weft and stand above the ground weave. 186 × 277 cm (6'1" × 9'1"), a little over five square meters. Sold as sandık eskisi — kept folded in a chest rather than used on a floor. Abrash between bands records a change of dye lot, not a defect. Professional washing. One piece. What is a cicim kilim? A cicim is a flatweave in which the pattern is added as a supplementary weft wrapped around the warp threads while the ground cloth is being woven.

05The origin of the pattern

The motifs stand slightly above the surface, and that is the fastest way to separate a cicim from a plain kilim by touch. What does sandık eskisi mean? Sandık eskisi translates as chest-old.

06The mark of slow weaving

It describes a weaving stored folded inside a dowry chest rather than put down on a floor, so it reaches the market with its color largely intact and what wear it has concentrated along the fold lines. Pieces that were woven for a house and not for a shop are the ones that turn out to have been worth keeping.